Please don’t tell my wife – Jeremy Corbyn conquers climbing wall

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn gave a strong and stable performance that revealed his Action Man tendencies as he scaled a wall at a climbing centre.

Mr Corbyn was on a visit to the Climbing Lab in Kirkstall, Leeds, one of the many businesses hit by flooding in 2015, as he supported the city's bid for more funding for flood defences to prevent any future disasters.

While Mr Corbyn had been told by his wife ahead of the visit "no dancing", following the Prime Minister's shimmy before her conference speech on Wednesday, she had made no mention of the 69-year-old not climbing.

"Please don't tell my wife," he said to an aide.

After chatting to staff, Mr Corbyn, who keeps fit by working on his allotment, whipped off his linen jacket and scaled a climbing wall to cheers and shouts of "Go on Jeremy!" from other climbers.

Gripping the hand holds and resting his feet on the supports as he went, Mr Corbyn climbed halfway up a 30-foot wall – without a rope or harness.

He shouted down with a smile to the gathering of cameras and reporters below: "Hello folks, how you doing?

"The future's good with Labour – even higher with Labour."

Mr Corbyn gave a thumbs up for the photographers, clinging on with his right hand, but declined the invitation to give two thumbs up.

He added: "If I fall down will you all turn the cameras off? Is that a deal?"